DOI Artikel:
Smith, Grafton Elliot; Derry, Douglas Erith: Anatomical report: dealing with the work during the months of January and February 1910
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18106#0014
ANATOMICAL REPORT.
Dealing with the Work during the Months of January
and February, 1910,
BY
G. ELLIOT SMITH, M.D., F.R.S., and DOUGLAS E. DERRY, M.B.
During the latter part of the season's work, with which this report
deals, the contents of two cemeteries (Nos. 101 and 102) were examined.
The former was a large and most important cemetery of Middle Nubian
(C-group) remains, and the latter, No. 102, situated immediately to
the south of No. 101 and practically continuous with it, consisted of
more than 200 graves, containing skeletons of Late Predynastic and
Early Dynastic date in an exceedingly friable state. It will be con-
venient to give an account of the contents of the latter first.
Cemetery 102.
The two hundred archaic graves in this cemetery contained com-
plete skeletons, which were undisturbed in the great majority of cases ;
but this materia], which would have been of the utmost value to us had
the bones been in a condition that permitted handling, was unfortu-
nately in a soft and most friable state, so that they crumbled and fell
into dust at the lightest touch.
Attempts were made to record the physical traits of the bones and
to measure some of them, but it was soon realized that even the best
preserved of them were so much distorted by grave-pressure (see
Arch. Survey of Nubia Eeport 1907-8, Vol. II, Report on the Human
Remains, p. 221) that the measurements are devoid of all value. For
example, the average of the maximum lengths of the crania measured
was more than a centimetre greater than that obtained in cemeteries
of the same date elsewhere, and the average breadth was more than a
centimetre less than it should have been. This is a source of fallacy
which has to be kept constantly in mind in dealing with ancient crania.
We have been deceived once before by such post-mortem distortion.
For, on re-examining, in the light of the knowledge of the state of
Dealing with the Work during the Months of January
and February, 1910,
BY
G. ELLIOT SMITH, M.D., F.R.S., and DOUGLAS E. DERRY, M.B.
During the latter part of the season's work, with which this report
deals, the contents of two cemeteries (Nos. 101 and 102) were examined.
The former was a large and most important cemetery of Middle Nubian
(C-group) remains, and the latter, No. 102, situated immediately to
the south of No. 101 and practically continuous with it, consisted of
more than 200 graves, containing skeletons of Late Predynastic and
Early Dynastic date in an exceedingly friable state. It will be con-
venient to give an account of the contents of the latter first.
Cemetery 102.
The two hundred archaic graves in this cemetery contained com-
plete skeletons, which were undisturbed in the great majority of cases ;
but this materia], which would have been of the utmost value to us had
the bones been in a condition that permitted handling, was unfortu-
nately in a soft and most friable state, so that they crumbled and fell
into dust at the lightest touch.
Attempts were made to record the physical traits of the bones and
to measure some of them, but it was soon realized that even the best
preserved of them were so much distorted by grave-pressure (see
Arch. Survey of Nubia Eeport 1907-8, Vol. II, Report on the Human
Remains, p. 221) that the measurements are devoid of all value. For
example, the average of the maximum lengths of the crania measured
was more than a centimetre greater than that obtained in cemeteries
of the same date elsewhere, and the average breadth was more than a
centimetre less than it should have been. This is a source of fallacy
which has to be kept constantly in mind in dealing with ancient crania.
We have been deceived once before by such post-mortem distortion.
For, on re-examining, in the light of the knowledge of the state of